Cheesecake? Yes please!!

I was reminded that I hadn't made a good old fashioned cheesecake in ages, so with a little spare time on the weekend I decided to get on with it! I have a couple of recipes that I like, so this is a rework to take the elements I like best of them with the Thermo used to make life easy. It makes a nice deep cheesecake if you use a 23cm springform tin.

First melt 100g chopped butter at 60 degrees speed 2 for 5 minutes. Add a packet of granita biscuits and pulse at turbo 3 or 4 times until evenly smashed up and mixed with the butter. Press this into the base and sides of your lined springform tin and chill while you do the filling.

Clean your Thermo bowl and whip 1 cup of pure cream to soft peaks and set aside in a large bowl. In a separate bowl melt 4 tsp powdered gelatine with 1/3 cup boiling water. Also finely zest 1 lemon and squeeze 1/3 cup of lemon juice.

Next combine 500g softened cream cheese and 1 tin condensed milk (I used low fat and it worked fine) and mix together speed 4 until smooth. Pour in your melted gelatine and lemon juice and zest and mix again speed 4 for 15 seconds. Pour this mix into the large bowl where your whipped cream is waiting and gently fold together until well mixed being careful to keep the lightness from the whipped cream.

Pour into your biscuit case and tap gently to settle and then chill in the fridge at least 3 hours or overnight until set.

Chilli Hot Chocolate!

The first chilly nights have arrived in Perth for Autumn so I decided to warm up quickly with a delicious cup of hot choc.

Simply take 30g of Lindt dark chilli chocolate and 300g of milk (I use skim) and mix together at 80 degrees speed 4 for 5 minutes.

Serve with marshmallows if you have some handy, or as a variation use plain dark chocolate and add a chunk of honeycomb for a lovely sweeter flavour.

Ripe Mango Chutney

I've made green mango chutney before, but here's a version using ripe mangoes this time!

To the thermo bowl add 2 halved brown onions, two red chillies (de-seed if you prefer less heat), 4 cloves of garlic and a large piceof ginger peeled and chopped- mine weighed 25g.

Blitz for 5 secs speed 5 then scrape the bowl and add 200g brown sugar, 330g white wine vinegar, 100g fresh pineapple roughly chopped, 1tsp each of ground ginger and fennel, 1/2 tsp ground allspice and 1/4 tsp ground cloves. Cook at varoma temp speed 2 for 20 mins.

Add the flesh from 8 medium size mangoes- around1-1.2kg in all.cook at varoma speed 2 for 7 mins then drop to 100 degrees for a further 7 mins. Make sure your rice basket is on top to avoid splashes!

Bottle in sterilised jars and store in the fridge once open.

Easy Loaf Cake!

I've had an old Family Circle Fabulous Fast Cakes book that has one favourite Banana Spice loaf recipe that gets used everytime bananas are going squashy in the fridge, so I decided to try mixing it up a bit this week!

I peeled and chopped two red apples, and added them to the Thermo bowl with 125g chopped butter, 120g sugar, 230g of self raising flour, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp baking powder. Pulse on turbo until the mixture is quite crumbly looking but stop if it starts to combine and get doughy. Add 2 whole eggs (I used a goose egg today!), 1/3 cup yoghurt and 1 tsp vanilla essence and mix for 10 secs speed 6. Scrape sides and mix again 5 secs speed 6. Add 1/2 cup frozen blueberries and mix reverse speed 4 for 5 seconds again to combine.

Pour into a paper lined loaf tin and bake at 170 for 50-60 mins and test with a skewer to ensure the centre is cooked. Cool in the tin for 10 mins then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

As usual I put it to the kid test, and Jack pronounced it the best cake ever!

Earlier in the week I made a version with carrot, banana and sultana- the banana was frozen so i pulsed it with the butter but if you have fresh banana I'd add it with the eggs and yoghurt.

I'm going to try zucchini, raisin and walnut next.... Yum

Muffins for Lunchboxes

My little darlings have started to assemble their own lunches in the morning. YAY!!!! It does mean I need to be a little more organised and have some treats on hand so they can easily grab something healthy for morning tea snacks so I headed for the kitchen.

This recipe was shared with me by Susie and came from the Coles magazine, so I've converted for the thermo and pimped it a bit to boost fibre and make it easier.

First finely grate a whole apple and 1 carrot in the thermo using pulse and set aside in a large bowl.

Then add 300g self raising flour, 50g rolled oats and 2 tsp finely ground ginger to the bowl and blitz speed 5 for 5 seconds. Add to the bowl with the apple/carrot and mix together until well combined.

Mix together 1 egg,  250g skim milk, 50g oil and 40g rice malt syrup (if you would rather use sugar add 1/3 cup of your preferred sugar to the flour/oats instead before blitzing) at speed 7 for 10 seconds

Combine quickly into your flour mix with a fork being careful not to over do it. We baked as mini muffins at 160 degrees fan forced for about 20 mins or until golden but you could do larger muffins if you want to and just cook a little longer. These will freeze well and just tuck into lunch boxes frozen they will be defrosted by morning tea time.

Choc Coconut Cookies

These are a version of a cookie that my sister Em and I voted the best ever, converted for the Thermie. It's a yummy treat for the kids and I don't mind a little nibble on one either. This recipe makes about 20 large cookies, they are very short and a bit sugary but nice once in a while!

First pulse on turbo 50g shredded coconut and the rind from one orange until it's the texture of fine crumbs. Use a veggie peeler to take the rind off so you don't get too much pith as that would make it bitter. Set aside and repeat the pulsing with 50g white choc and 50g dark choc- leave them a coarser texture however still crumb like and don't worry if you have a few chunky bits. Set aside with the coconut mix.

Add 150g raw sugar to the Thermomix bowl and blitz at speed 8 for 5 seconds. Add 175g of unsalted butter (room temp if you remember but if butter is straight from fridge mix now at 37 degrees speed 4 for a minute) insert butterfly and mix speed 4 for 5 minutes until creamy. Remove butterfly, add rest of ingredients along with 2 eggs yolks, 1/2 teaspoon of orange blossom water (optional), a pinch of salt and 225g self raising flour and mix at speed 4 for 15 seconds to combine. Scrape sides and give it another 3 seconds.

You can roll the mix into balls, flatten on a paper lined baking tray and bake straight away or roll it into a log about 5 cm thick and wrap tightly like a bonbon and pop in the fridge to set. I did mine last night ready to bake this morning for a fresh morning tea! You can freeze this mix too.

When you are ready to bake then you just cut slices about 1cm thick, place well spaced apart on an oven tray and bake at 190 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until golden and set. Leave on the tray for 5 mins to firm up then cool on a rack.

 

Old School Vanilla Slice (snot block!)

I've adapted a recipe I found on Taste.com to suit the Thermomix, and as usual tweaked it a little.

First partially defrost 2 ready rolled puff pastry sheets, and line a baking tray with paper, lay out pastry sheetsop with more baking paper and weight with another baking tray. Bake at 200 degrees for 20 mins or until golden brown and crisp.

Add to the Thermomix bowl 1125g milk (I used skim it was fine), 250g sugar, 150g cornflour, 75g custard powder, 75g chopped butter, 2 egg yolks and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Cook 10 mins 90 degrees speed 4.

Once pastry is cooled a little, trim to fit the base of a 6cm deep 22cm square cake pan you have lined with paper including sides. Top with hot custard then trim the other sheet and fit to the top of the tin and custard. Cool for 30 mins.

Make icing by melting together 350g icing sugar, 15g butter and 100g passionfruit pulp at 90 degrees for 5 minutes speed 2. Top the layer of pastry with icing, and refrigerate for four hours. Serve sliced into squares. For fussy families (like mine!) make the icing vanilla instead I copped some resistance to the passionfruit!